The heart of Gold

Michelle Asha Albert, in her words, “didn’t have much fun as a kid”. Raised in the early 1970s in Guyana, she was primarily brought up by her grandparents and her father’s sister. Her parents left her and her baby sister in their care when she was two years old to study overseas in an effort to provide a better life for the family. Her father received a government scholarship to study in England and he convinced her mother to join him and study as well. There was no TV, only a radio playing a local station. Her grandfather worked as a dock handler and her grandmother was a seamstress and homemaker. As she and her sister got older they attended a local school. However, the six-block walk to and from the market with their grandmother was their main extracurricular activity.

When Michelle turned ten, things started to shift. Her parents returned to Guyana. The girls would get a little pocket money from their parents which propelled them into entrepreneurship. Michelle and her sister started neighborhood “fashion shows”. They would set up these shows under a neighbor’s house. An entrance fee was charged, but in exchange, the attendees would receive little gifts purchased by the girls. They would be entertained by models in different categories – junior and seniors modeled separately to lively music. They advertised door-to-door with local flyers. Michelle’s passion for events like this, steeped in fashion and decorating, remains today.

Michelle started her secondary school in Guyana around the same time. The Guyanese education system follows the British system with primary education going through age 10 and secondary education going through age 18. Guyana established its independence from Britain in 1966 to become a socialist-inspired Cooperative Republic. As part of this, the country's educational policy in the 1970s aimed to broaden access to education. Michelle had to apply for entrance exams to get an education at the elite schools in Guyana. She was admitted into one of the top secondary schools in the country. At her school were government dignitaries which meant that she got to see into another side of life and access which were previously out of view. Even the number of bomb scares her school received was an eye-opening experience.

Her world opened immensely since her market walks as a child. But when she was 15 her life had a tectonic shift. Her grandfather died in his 60s of cardiac arrest. Michelle was a top history student in the Caribbean, this event changed her academic trajectory immeasurably. She was devastated by his death and driven to change the course of health around cardiac disease. Her parents moved her family to the United States after he died for a better life.

Michelle was looking to go into the 12th grade in the United States. By age alone, she would be a sophomore. However, Michelle and her parents were determined to get her into the grade commiserate with her abilities. She remembers visiting numerous schools with her father when they first arrived in the U.S. None would admit her into twelfth grade (a fact she attributes to systematic racism). She was finally admitted to the 12th grade at Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn. They had a special program “Bridge to Medicine” and they placed Michelle in that program, a move that transformed her experiences.  It highlighted possibilities that aligned with her passion to help find a cure for her grandfather’s loss.

She remembers taking the subway to 137th Street each day and walking up to City College to be a part of that program. City College became her High School more than her actual school. She found a small community that spoke to her.

Michelle chose Haverford College for her bachelor’s degree. Since she was entering college at 16, she wanted a smaller school that would feel more comfortable.  She was the only Black student in her dorm. This experience felt isolating. Having grown up in Guyana where the population is largely comprised of persons of African and Indian ancestry, and then living in Brooklyn with its diverse representation, the lack of racial diversity in her dorm was shocking. She even remembers being accused of stealing someone’s food which in retrospect she equates to racism. The campus did host a Black Student League where she was able to find some comradery and comfort.

The two events that Michelle remembers most vividly about college was getting ill her second year and having a school mate whom she did not know before reach out to her to be roommates. Her illness made her very worried that she wouldn’t graduate on time. She ended up having a professor tutor her every day in physical chemistry so she could stay afloat once her illness resolved. And her new roommate, stayed her roommate or dorm mate for the rest of her college career, giving her stability and friendship after her rocky freshman experience.

Michelle graduated Haverford with an acceptance to medical school at University of Rochester. Recounting her MCAT experience she says “I took them twice, I hated it, I can’t imagine I did well….” I can’t help but laugh, as her career reads like a CV that appropriately placed on her the Forbes 50 list recently.

She went on to attend a medical residency back in New York City and was asked to be the Chief Medical Resident, an honor that asked her to stay one extra year in her residency. She completed her Internal Medicine Residency at Columbia University Medical Center. Dr. Albert then spent 16 years in Boston, beginning as a Cardiovascular Clinical and Research Fellowship at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital associated with Harvard Medical School. She rose in the ranks to an Associate Professor in Medicine at Harvard.

During her years in Boston, she happened to meet her husband. She was set up on a blind date by a mutual friend. They proceeded to have a date every day for a month. After three months they knew they wanted to be married. They were engaged in February of 2001. They had intended to be married September 15, 2001 in New York City. When Michelle was on the train to New York from Boston she had a premonition and decided not to go into Manhattan on Tuesday ahead of the wedding. She was in Brooklyn for 9/11 with her family. Their wedding was moved to later that year; they’ve been together since then.

During that time Dr. Albert has received numerous awards and recognitions for her work in the field of Cardiology. Awards and achievements is an understatement in her case. I’m going to refer you to her list of accomplishments on her biography at UCSF which details honors like the President of the American Heart Association, President of Black Cardiologists, President of the Association of University Cardiologists and Chief of Cardiology at Howard University. Her emphasis remains rooted in helping families like her own that experienced significant loss due to cardiac disease.

During her time in Medical School at Rochester she learned about the Biopsychosocial Model of Medicine. The foundation of this medical framework is essentially that your environment, stress level, and your history and your family’s history of trauma can have an outsized impact on your cardiac health and health outcomes in general. Her work in this field remains strong today with the NURTURE Center she established at UCSF (CeNter for the StUdy of AdveRsiTy and CardiovascUlaR DiseasE).

Since her years of Medical School and her wedding I have a feeling she’s had some fun. She tells me of a birthday she threw herself that was not so unlike the events she put on with her sister in Guyana. Small heartfelt gifts in signature blue boxes were left for her friends and family at each table setting. My hope is her wine brings her that same delightful joy that she more than deserves. With her wine, I hope to honor her indomitable spirit that drove a child in Guyana to create an extravagant neighborhood fashion show as much as the woman challenging the field of medicine to better serve each and every person in this world.

Donations from 2022 Cantadora “The Heart of Gold” Chardonnay will be made in Dr. Albert’s honor to the Student Experience Team at UCSF to address the needs of Medical Students in Crisis.